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Saturday, May 7, 2011

Hot Docs is pleased to announce the winners of the Festival's
2011 awards. Award winners were announced at a reception on Friday, May 6, at
the Windsor Arms Hotel. Nine awards and over $72,000 in cash prizes were
presented to Canadian and international filmmakers, including awards for
Festival films in competition and those recognizing emerging and established
filmmakers. The Hot Docs Awards Presentation was hosted by Jian Ghomeshi, host
of Q on CBC Radio One. The Best Canadian Feature and Best International Feature
winners will have encore screenings on Sunday, May 8.

The award for Best Canadian Feature was presented to FAMILY PORTRAIT IN BLACK AND WHITE (D:
Julia Ivanova; P: Boris Ivanov, Mike Jackson), which visits a ramshackle house
in Ukraine where supermom Olga Nenya is raising 16 abandoned mixed-race children.
Sponsored by the Brian Linehan
Charitable Foundation and Documentary Organization of Canada,
the award includes a $15,000 prize courtesy
of the Brian Linehan Charitable Foundation. Jury statement: "The award for
Best Canadian Feature goes to an intimate, poetic film that bravely confronts
nuance and complexity in its characters and its world." FAMILY
PORTRAIT IN BLACK AND WHITE will screen again on Sunday, May 8, at 11:00 a.m.
at the Isabel Bader Theatre.
The Special Jury Prize – Canadian Feature
was presented to two films, AT NIGHT, THEY
DANCE (D: Isabelle Lavigne, Stéphane Thibault; P: Lucie Lambert),
which sweeps us into the chaotic world of a family of voluptuous female belly
dancers in working class Cairo as they struggle to practice an art in danger of
disappearing, andThe Guantanamo Trap (D: Thomas Selim
Wallner; P: Thomas Kufus, Amit Breuer, Marcel Hoehn, Christoph Jorg), which follows
four lives forever changed by the infamous U.S. detention camp. Sponsored
by the Brian Linehan Charitable Foundation,
the award includes a $10,000 prize courtesy of the Brian Linehan Charitable
Foundation. Jury statement: "The special jury prize is shared between two
films, a powerful film that mobilizes compelling characters who face
uncomfortable truths, piecing together the anatomy of a broken system – The Guantanamo Trap by Thomas Selwin
Wallmer, and a beautifully filmed, haunting and evocative documentary that
invites us into a world we would never be able to enter otherwise – At Night, They Dance by Isabelle
Lavigne and Stephane Thibault."

The Canadian Features
Jury also acknowledged the film WIEBO'S WAR
(D: David York, P: David York, Nick Hector, Bryn Hughes, Bonnie Thompson; EP: David
York, David Christensen) with an honourable
mention.

The award for Best International Feature was presented to
DRAGONSLAYER (D: Tristan Patterson;
P: John Baker, EP: Christine Vachon), about Californian skate-punk Skreech who stretches
out his adolescence by riding empty pools, getting wasted and road-tripping. Sponsored
by A&E, the award includes a $10,000
prize courtesy of Hot Docs. Jury statement: "We were captivated by a
non-hero, in a capitalistic, nihilistic society in decline. We were drawn to
the funky connection between the structure and content, the freshness of
filmmaking and original non-linear storytelling. For these reasons we stand by
DRAGONSLAYER." DRAGONSLAYER will screen again on Sunday, May 8, at 11:00
a.m. at the ROM Theatre.

The Special Jury Prize – International Feature
was presented to THE CASTLE (D:
Massimo D'Anolfi, Martina Parenti; P: Massimo D'Anolfi, Martina Parenti; EP:
Massimo D'Anolfi, Martina Parenti), in which rigorous observational filmmaking
exposes the ennui and heightened tensions of today's border security via Milan's Malpensa
Airport. Sponsored by the
Ontario Media Development Corporation, the award includes a $5,000 prize
courtesy of Hot Docs. Jury statement: "For portraying a liminal space in
both humor and pain; for the uncompromising camera which sees it all; for
noticing the hardship of a system trapped by its own obsession of security,
turning a regular terminal into an intrusive checkpoint into Europe;
for not neglecting those who resist; for us who look but don't see."

The award for Best Mid-Length Documentary was presented
to OUR NEWSPAPER (D: Eline Flipse;
P: Eline Flipse; EP: Eline Flipse), in which a disgruntled journalist quits The
Leninist and starts Our Newspaper in a remote Russian village. Sponsored by
Canada Council for the Arts, the award includes a
$3,000 prize courtesy of Hot Docs. Jury statement: "This is a portrait of
a place and a people receding into history. Alternately poignant and wary in
tone, it is the compelling story of a man attempting to find meaning and
purpose within a fatalistic environment."

The Short and
Mid-Length Films Jury also acknowledged the film PEOPLE I COULD HAVE BEEN AND MAYBE AM (D: Boris Gerrets; P: Pieter
van Huystee) with an honourable mention.

The award for Best Short Documentary was presented to FLYING ANNE (D: Catherine van Campen; P:
Joost Seelen), a three-dimensional portrait of a girl with Tourette’s
looking for love, acceptance and understanding. The award includes a $3,000
prize courtesy of Hot Docs. Jury statement: "This is a film that impressed
the jury because of its ability to bring viewers into the world of its young
subject with great sensitivity and skill. Through bold camera work we’re
drawn into a visceral and moment to moment experience of her emotions and
struggles. It achieves a genuine sense of transcendence through its balance of
vérité elements and lyrical imagery."

The Short and
Mid-Length Films Jury also acknowledged the film SOMETHING TO TELL YOU (D: Pete Gleeson; P: Pete Gleeson; EP: Yvette
Coyne) with an honourable mention.

The award for Best Short Documentary was presented to FLYING ANNE (D: Catherine van Campen; P:
Joost Seelen), a three-dimensional portrait of a girl with Tourette’s
looking for love, acceptance and understanding. The award includes a $3,000
prize courtesy of Hot Docs. Jury statement: "This is a film that impressed
the jury because of its ability to bring viewers into the world of its young
subject with great sensitivity and skill. Through bold camera work we’re
drawn into a visceral and moment to moment experience of her emotions and
struggles. It achieves a genuine sense of transcendence through its balance of
vérité elements and lyrical imagery."

The Short and
Mid-Length Films Jury also acknowledged the film SOMETHING TO TELL YOU (D: Pete Gleeson; P: Pete Gleeson; EP: Yvette
Coyne) with an honourable mention.

The HBO Documentary Films Emerging Artist Awardwas presented to director Michal
Marczak for the film AT THE EDGE OF RUSSIA
(P: Marianna Rowinska), in which a young recruit arrives at his Arctic post, hundreds
of miles from the nearest human settlement, and is charged with an absurd task:
patrolling the nothingness. The HBO Documentary Films Emerging Artist Award is
sponsored by HBO Documentary Films. Jury statement: "Incredible
storytelling of an initiation ceremony turning a young recruit into a real soldier.
At the end of Russia,
the end of the world perhaps, this film stunningly portrays five men as they
protect their country in the icy snow against an invisible enemy. We
unanimously salute this powerful debut in cinema."

The Hot Docs Board of
Directors acknowledged the Terence Macartney-Filgate as the recipient of the
2011 Hot Docs Outstanding Achievement Award, which was presented to the
influential Canadian filmmaker at an event earlier in the day.

documentary's Don Haig Award,
presented annually to a Canadian documentary filmmaker, was awarded to
Toronto-based writer and director Rama Rau.
Awarded by the Don Haig Foundation, the prize includes a $20,000 cash prize
generously sponsored by documentary.
The Lindalee Tracey Award, which honours an emerging
Canadian filmmaker with a passionate point of view, a strong sense of social
justice and a sense of humour, was presented to Quebec-based documentary
filmmaker Alexandre Hamel. As part
of the award, Hamel will receive a $6,000 cash prize and $3,000 in film stock
donated by Kodak Canada.

The 2011 awards were
determined by three juries, each consisting of three jury members.

The Canadian Features
Jury was made up of Nathalie Barton (President of InformAction Films), Caroline
Libresco (Senior Programmer for Sundance Film Festival), and Alan Zweig
(Filmmaker); the International Features Jury was made up of Luciano Barisone
(Director of Visions du Réel), Marianne Khoury (Filmmaker), and Philippa
Kowarsky (Managing Director of Cinephil); and the Short and Mid-Length Films
Jury was made up of Jason Anderson (Film Critic, Journalist, Teacher), Sarah
Goodman (Filmmaker), and Malcolm Pullinger (Filmmaker).

The Sundance Channel
People's Choice Award and audience top ten favourite films of the 2011 Festival,
determined by audience ballot, will be announced on Monday, May 9. Also
announced on this day is the Filmmaker Award, determined by ballots cast by Hot
Docs 2011 filmmakers.